Santa Fe, NM
Pippin Contemporary, July 7-18
Liz Barber, Floating Petals, mixed media, 36 x 36.
This story was featured in the July 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
Pippin Contemporary’s mission statement—“a sensory experience of color and mood”—is on display in full force this month with a show titled Expressions in Color. The group exhibition brings together five artists whose works each feature color in a different way, says Andrea Wexler, director of the gallery. The show opens with a reception on Friday, July 7, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The exhibition includes several pieces each from Liz Barber, Elizabeth Hahn Stephanie Paige, Suzanne Wallace Mears, and Nic Noblique. Barber is a mixed-media artist who layers oil, plaster, and watercolor in her abstract works, which are reminiscent of pressed flower petals in a range of color combinations. Hahn’s fresh, vibrant snapshots of life feature loud patterns that reflect the artist’s love of textiles and quilts. “Her contemporary realism brings such great, energetic color to that style,” Wexler says. Paige, a painter from California, describes her work as meditative abstractions inspired by the natural world. “She creates rough textural details and smooth transitions between hues that gives her pieces a peaceful energy,” Wexler says.
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- Suzanne Wallace Mears, Sentinel, glass, 23 x 9 x 5.
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- Liz Barber, Spring Song, mixed media, 48 x 60.
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- Liz Barber, Summer Song, mixed media, 48 x 48.
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- Elizabeth Hahn, Birds of a Feather, acrylic, 30 x 30.
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- Liz Barber, Spring Day, mixed media, 48 x 36.
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- Suzanne Wallace Mears, The Vegetarian, glass, 14 x 6 x 3.
Two sculptors are also featured alongside the two-dimensional work. Mears works in kiln-formed glass, layering flat, colored sheets of glass upon one another and firing them in a kiln that reaches up to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 40 hours. The artist says she has worked in many different mediums, but this one requires such time and energy that it became an obsession. “I’ve always been turned on by the color—it’s exciting, and it makes the world go round,” she says. And the medium fits her philosophy well because the glass she uses does not change its color during the firing process. Noblique’s abstract sculptures curl and bend in different directions, mimicking the hills, slopes, gorges, and inclines found in the natural world. The artist experiments with color as it relates to its surroundings, and he often chooses bright colors to elicit emotional reactions.
“Color is a very, very important thread that runs through the gallery, and this exhibition brings different palettes together in a unique way,” Wexler says. —Mackenzie McCreary
contact information
505.795.7476
www.pippincontemporary.com
This story was featured in the July 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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